Nguyễn Thượng Hiền – Poems written for friends

Nguyễn Thượng Hiền (阮尚賢, 1868-1925), courtesy name (字, tự) Đỉnh Thần (鼎臣), traveled extensively through East Asia and made acquaintance with like-minded revolutionaries in Japan, Korea, and China. Along his travels, he corresponded with both his Vietnamese and non-Vietnamese friends through classical Chinese poetry, which, at the time, was still a shared written lingua franca across China, Vietnam, Korea, and Japan. As a part of this continuing series of translations from his poetry, this post presents several of these poems written for his friends.

Gazing south, billowing clouds stretch along the frontier
In the spring wind, my heart breaks at the sound of a Việt song
At the Five Tombs, who are left of my acquaintances?
In the setting sun, mist and flowers cover the old capital

Across ten-thousand miles of mists and waves, a single empty boat has floated
Meeting on this island nation, we tell tales of our heroic distant travels
Drunk, we read strange books under the lamp
Wind and rain fill the sky, entering the west tower

The barbarian’s fortunes are like the receding tide
The people’s hearts are like a first just kindled
Coming and going, all is to serve the country
Rising and falling does not depend on Heaven
The borderland moon shines down on the north
The southern carriage is directed towards the frontier mists
When will I be able to take a long broom
And wipe clean the stench of these beasts across ten-thousand miles

Notes:

– Sent to all my friends in the capital (寄都中諸友, Ký đô trung chư hữu), this poems was most likely written when the author was somewhere in China. The capital most likely refers to the the city of Huế (順化, Thuận Hóa), the capital of the Nguyễn dynasty.

-Five Tombs (五陵, Ngũ lăng) refers to the tombs of the Han emperors in China, but here is used to refer to the imperial city of Vietnam

-Nguyễn Thiện Thuật (阮善述, ?-?), courtesy name (字, tự) Mạnh Hiếu (孟孝) was a native of Hải Dương province (海陽省, Hải Dương tỉnh). He led military campaign against the French for over a decade before fleeing to China after his forces began to weaken.

-This poem refers to the author’s plans to take advantage of France’s involvement in the first World War to launch a military strike against them in northern Vietnam. It is possible that it was written late in 1915.

-The illustration is of martial officers and soldiers of the Nguyễn dynasty